Patricia Bullrich states crackdown on drug gangs is prospering
Cocaine exports to Europe have been blocked, she states
Murders in Rosario center most affordable in a minimum of a years
By Lucinda Elliott
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's security minister, is on an objective to stamp out drug gangs in the South American country that have actually driven and led to a spike in cocaine deliveries to Europe. She states she is being successful.
Argentina has grown in significance as a transit hub for cocaine as production from Peru and Bolivia has flowed down essential waterways and out through river ports such as that of Rosario, Lionel Messi's home town. Gang-related murders increased in tandem.
Bullrich, in an unusual interview with global media, informed Reuters the year-old government of libertarian President Javier Milei was separating the gangs and obstructing deliveries from making their way to end markets, consisting of to Europe, where the cocaine market has actually broadened recently.
"We've had record cocaine seizures and that's generated terrific respect for us regionally and likewise in Europe, due to the fact that (in 2024) no shipment from Argentina was identified in Europe," she said at her office in Buenos Aires, including that "naturally there might be some deliveries that were undiscovered."
The security ministry confirmed that cocaine was not found in any deliveries that crossed the South Atlantic from Argentina to a major European port in 2024. Reuters was unable to individually validate that.
Once a rival to Milei as the presidential prospect for the main conservative bloc, Bullrich is now leading the crackdown on criminal activity, tightening borders with Brazil and Bolivia, privatizing some jails and using artificial intelligence to track gangs.
In Rosario, according to local government figures, murders dropped to 90 last year - the lowest in a minimum of the last decade and down from almost 300 in 2022 and 261 in 2023, the year before Milei and Bullrich took office.
"We chose to strike hard against the gangs," Bullrich said, adding that cooperation in between the nationwide and regional federal governments in Rosario had actually been a crucial factor, as well as the courts taking a harder line. The government has actually likewise targeted drug kingpins currently behind bars.
"We removed the power that the drug bosses had in the jails, who utilized the jails to keep their drug criminal offense rings going. We isolated them," she said.
Andrei Serbin Pont, an Argentine security and intelligence specialist and president of regional think tank CRIES, credited a focus on gathering intelligence with aiding the criminal activity decrease.
"There was a concerted security effort by the nationwide government to prioritize Rosario, with a concentrate on criminal intelligence rather than just having more cops on the streets, which is a much more feasible strategy," he said.
Bullrich has actually sent a costs to congress to establish a brand-new anti-mafia law, similar to U.S. RICO legislation, to remove criminal networks, and said she has actually likewise gained from security forces in Britain and Italy.
In 2015, she hosted El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, and visited his mega-prison that holds tens of thousands of gang members in difficult conditions that have drawn praise from hardline law-and-order political leaders and criticism from rights groups. Photos have actually shown rows of tattooed and topless prisoners kneeling with their hands behind the heads.
"In our case, our system has actually been a little, let's state, less severe. But when we need to be difficult, we are difficult," said Bullrich.
TOUGHER BORDERS
Bullrich informed Reuters she was strengthening border controls to stop drug gangs, preparing check outs to cocaine-growing locations in Peru, and increasing cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Bullrich said the border with Bolivia was being enhanced, consisting of by building a short stretch of wall in northern Salta province. Argentina is likewise doing more tracking of entry points with Brazil where there had been a "absence of control over the last few years," she said.
"We're going to start a program, a strategy, we're taking soldiers to the border location with Brazil," she said.
Authorities in Bolivia and Brazil did not right away react to an ask for remark. Brazil's Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, last week welcomed the idea of reinforcing border security in a reaction to the procedures.
Bullrich, a political veteran who has brought Milei key center-ground assistance, said she had been won over to the libertarian's more comprehensive financial and social reforms beyond his security focus, which have actually divided Argentines however assisted support the nation.
The two are former rivals. During the election race, Milei identified her a leftist "bomb-thrower" - a referral to her time with the youth wing of the Peronist motion - to which Bullrich had actually shot back that the former economic pundit was emotionally unsteady.
Bullrich said the distinctions were now behind them and sitiosecuador.com she and her bloc were assisting him as he seeks to gain seats in legal mid-term elections set for later this year.
"We're more libertarian than conservative now," she said.
(Reporting by Lucinda Elliott. Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia and Daniel Ramos in La Paz
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Argentina Gang Crackdown has Dried Up Cocaine Exports, Security
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